Opening Day: 21 January 2010

Synopsis:

When a home invasion robbery turns deadly, the lone survivor will stop at nothing to avenge his lost loved ones in Law Abiding Citizen, an explosive examination of blind justice from the director of The Italian Job.

Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is an upstanding family man whose wife and daughter are brutally murdered during a home invasion. When the killers are caught, Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), a hotshot Philadelphia prosecutor, is assigned to the case. Nick offers one of the suspects a light sentence in exchange for testifying against his accomplice.

Fast forward ten years. The man who got away with murder is found dead and
Clyde Shelton coolly admits his guilt. Then he issues a warning to Nick: Either fix the flawed justice system that failed his family, or key players in the trial will die. Soon Shelton follows through on his threats, orchestrating from his jail cell a string of spectacularly diabolical assassinations that can be neither predicted nor prevented. Philadelphia is gripped with fear as Shelton’s high-profile targets are slain one after another and the authorities are powerless to halt his reign of terror. Only Nick can stop the killing, and to do so he must outwit this brilliant sociopath in a harrowing contest of wills in which even the smallest misstep means death. With his own family now in Shelton’s crosshairs, Nick finds himself in a desperate race against time facing a deadly adversary who seems always to be one step ahead.

Movie Review:

Everyone loves a tale of revenge and mischief. Good guy falls into the hands of the bad guys. Tragedy happens and survives to tell the tale. Good guy comes back for some whooping ass. Its best served cold but "Law Abiding Citizen" threads carefully along a fine thin line, making the audience torn between the two sides.

The story in one hand, Cylde, a good husband/dad who was brutally assaulted in his own home during a random break-in resulted in the death of his wife and daughter. The other, assistant DA Nick Rice, a hard cased prosecutor assigned to take a plea unsatisfactory to Clyde. Pent-up anger prevails as the one known to Clyde that murdered his family is going to be free in 10 years was too much for him, he took justice in his own hands. Not just to the one that got a way, but the whole justice system that allowed to do so.

Hard to believe one man can create such chaos right? And would you believe all this madness rained on the city of Philadelphia, while he was in prison. That's right. In prison. Gary Gray, the director, who's line of work such as "The Italian Job" and "The Negotiator", builds its intrigue beautifully and very much applaud its effort but somehow, things doesn't add up as the story went along. Loop holes seem to be popping up everywhere, suspending you in disbelief, pulling all the strings it could find. On some level, a little insinuating that the director is taking you for a blind joy ride but i must admit, it was kinda fun. The scene where Clyde, in court, pleading not guilty, in my book, was quite a kick in the gut awesome. If only the whole film was that clever and played around with the system like so.

Acting overall was on par within expectation. Gerard was his usual epic self. A ruthless spartan he will always be in my heart, wishing he could just do that one swift kick to the one that got away to his deathly hallows, but he needed more. Gerard held his balance between self-doubt and internal anger making him much a joy to watch and unfold. Jamie, doing what he does best, doesn't seem any different for his other roles and served a satisfactory performance.

The problem with this film, besides it's Swiss-cheese facade, is that it took too much balancing between right and wrong. Every aspect of the film had its counter balance and the audience are left half-hearten throughout the duration of the film. Yes, true life has its grey areas, but we want to see mayhem without us feeling remorse that we enjoyed the carnage. We want to see those who are guilty get punished and get what they deserve, not see some sweet lawyers get blown up because they didn't meet some timing that he demanded. That's just cruel. With so much build-up, the ending was rather a let down. Wrapping up too quickly and such a simple plan was all that it took. Somehow its hard to believe such a genius would leave such a gaping hole uncovered.

Movie Rating:



(A tense thriller that falls undecided between the lines of good and bad)

Review by Lokman B S